First Lady Rula Ghani Calls For Support Of Women Entrepreneurs

Addressing a women’s empowerment forum at RECCA VII, the First Lady of I.R. Afghanistan said one of RECCA’s objectives was to enhance cooperation for and among businesswomen.

Afghanistan’s First Lady Rula Ghani has emphasized the need for women in Afghanistan to play a broader role in the country’s economic sector.

Speaking at Business Forum on the first day of the Seventh Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA VII), Rula Ghani told participants at the women’s economic empowerment forum that all stakeholders need to work together to help boost women’s participation in the economy.

Delegates attending the meeting exchanged views on a number of important topics pertaining to women’s economic empowerment and on how to boost relations between businesswomen in the region.

“One of the objectives of RECCA t is to enhance cooperation among businesswomen, because we realize that without the participation of women in the economic activities, it is difficult to reach our objectives, therefore we need the people and the women to work together so that we can reach sustainable stability,” said Rula Ghani.

She said that Afghanistan is at the crossroads of cultural exchanges and trade routes.

The meeting also focused on a number of other issues such as problems Afghan and regional businesswomen face, women’s skills development programs, and investment and proper marketing facilities for women’s products.

“Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries is implementing a range of programs to facilitate the private sector on the basis of which investments in Afghanistan and in the region will be increased. We have outlined a number of frameworks for our programs to find investment opportunities in Afghanistan so that appropriate ground is paved for investors across the country,” said ACCI chief Atiqullah Nusrat.

At the meeting, Turkmen officials said that trade and transit relations between Afghanistan and Turkmenistan have noticeably increased in recent months – by 22 percent.

“Now Afghanistan and Turkmenistan are willing to expand their commercial relations and currently there is a proper opportunity to take advantage of. We are ready to sign seven agreements to boost trade and economic ties”.

Building on the outcomes of the previous RECCA meetings, RECCA VII will provide an opportunity to:

• Take stock of the progress made since RECCA VI in Kabul through a comprehensive review of the priority projects including the actions recommended in the RECCA 2016 Review
• Discuss the challenges and bottlenecks as well as the financing and investment needs with respect to the priority projects in key areas of energy; transport networks; trade and transit facilitation; communications; and business to business and labor support,
• Build consensus around concrete steps that need to be taken in the context of ongoing projects,
• Present possible new projects or activities under the above mentioned priority areas,
• Further promote synergy between RECCA, the Heart of Asia- Istanbul Process and other regional cooperation platforms in the wider region.

RECCA has now turned into a leading regional cooperation framework aimed at promoting cross-border economic cooperation through a list of prioritized regional economic cooperation and investment projects that are capable of contributing to economic growth, job creation, income generation and confidence building in the wider Central, South and Southwest Asia and beyond.